Jan Hamming

Children in Zaanstad see Sinterklaas as a fun family celebration and when it comes to the color of Zwarte Piet, they prefer so-called Chimney Pieten colored black by soot, according to Zaanstad Children's Ombudsman Martien van Does, Het Parool reports.

Van Does spoke to 200 children about Sinterklaas in the run-up to a debate evening on Wednesday about the holy man's national arrival at the Zaanse Schans on November 17th.

With the month of November, and the arrival of Sinterklaas in the Netherlands, approaching, the Zwarte Piet discussion is also starting up again. The first demonstrations at the Sint's arrival in Zaanstad on November 17th were announced, though so far only from activists supporting the blackface figure of Zwarte Piet.

The national arrival of Sinterklaas will happen in the Noord-Holland municipality of Zaanstad on November 17th this year. Mayor Jan Hamming will welcome the Saint and his helpers in the historic village of Zaandijk, after which Sinterklaas will travel to Zaanse Schans on horseback, NTR announced on Friday.

The police arrested a member of the Den Bosch city council's trust committee on Tuesday. The 55-year-old man is suspected of involvement in the leak of information about the nomination of a new mayor in the city, AD reports.

A couple who survived a terrorist attack on a Tunisian beach last year, will not get four Syrian refugees as neighbors to their home on Sternlaan in Vlijmen, Mayor Jan Hamming decided after speaking to the couple

A couple from the Brabant town of Vlijmen is fighting against four young Syrian men moving into the house next to them. The two Dutch survived a terrorist attack on a beach in Tunisia last year, and while the two have nothing to do with each other, they'll feel unsafe with Syrians living next door, the father of the woman involved said to the Gelderlander on behalf of the family.

Smaller asylum reception facilities with attention paid to integration right from the start are the solution to the problems the Netherlands currently faces surrounding the reception of asylum seekers, according to mayors Mark Buijs from Boxtel and Jan Hamming from Heusden in an open letter to the Volkskrant on Monday.